Get to know me!

I worry that this blog seems a bit impersonal a lot of the time. So, a few bits of trivia about myself:

• I am allergic to penicillin. When I was a kid, I was allergic to dust. This was a big problem.
  
  
• I was born in Manhattan and I have a working class Manhattan accent (as opposed to the Jackie Kennedy aristocrat Manhattan accent). Think Robert DeNiro, but his real accent, not the exaggerated one he uses in movies. See here. That's what I sound like. The funny thing about Manhattanites is that when we get agitated, our accent gets stronger. We use it as a weapon.
  
  
• On the night I was born, two taxis who were racing to try to pick up my mother to take her to the hospital crashed into each other. One of them flipped over. The drivers were both okay.
  
  
• When I was very young, I was in a train accident. I don't remember it, but I have pictures. It sounds funny to describe it now - the train car I was riding in hit a parked steam locomotive sideways. Don't ask how a train car goes sideways. I ate a fair amount of broken glass. But I still love trains.
  
  
• One of my legs is an inch shorter than the other. I fell down three steps while juggling. I broke my ankle and my leg stopped growing. This is unnoticeable to anyone else, but it causes me back pain sometimes.
  
  
• I can play saxophone, bass guitar and guitar. I also took singing lessons when I was younger, although I am still not a very good singer and even less so since my lung problems (a giant tube rammed down your throat is not good for a person's singing voice). I was in a heavy metal band in high school. We thought we were pretty good.
  
  
• I can drive a stick.
  
  
• I graduated from NYU film school.
  
  
• I was music director for my college radio station (before NYU).
  
  
• I have both driven across the country and taken the train across the country, multiple times. This has hugely affected my world view and I urge everyone to do one or both sometime before they get old and cranky.
  
  
• I have stayed aboard the Queen Mary.
  
  
• I have lived in 25 different places in my short lifetime. That's almost a move every year.
  
  
• I grew up on both coasts. My parents are from the midwest. My brother lives in the Oregon desert. I lived in Rockford, Illinois for a few years after high school, by choice. I really liked it there. I was able to live on $25 per week working at K-Mart. I ate a lot of store brand macaroni and cheese, hot dogs and ramen noodles.
  
  
• I have really bad luck with girls named "Jean".
  
  
• My first car was a 1984 Pontiac Firebird. My second car was a 1980 Camaro. My third car was a 1990 Nissan Sentra. My fourth car was a 1980 Camaro. (A different one.)
  
  
• I met my wife online, halfway around the world. We got married three years later.
  
  
• In New York City, I have lived in Morningside Heights, the East Village, Chelsea, Woodside and Astoria. I have both good and bad memories from all of them, and they represent different phases of my life to me.
  
  
• I collect video game consoles and games. My first system was a Mattel Intellivision, which I got for Christmas in 1980.
  
  
• I used to work in the video game industry, and I will give you the following advice: do not work in the video game industry.
  
  
• I lived for a year with two bisexual girls. They started out among my best friends. Long story short, I haven't talked to them since.
  
  
• The first album I ever owned was The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour". I was 4 years old when I got it.
  
  
• I was considered for a part in "Clerks" but then forgot to follow up. I was not an actor anyway.
  
  
• I used to want to be a pilot, until the plane I was in almost crashed. Now I am afraid of airplanes, but still fascinated by them. I love airports as long as I am not the one flying. I will go to an airport just to hang out. I will drive anyone to the airport that needs a ride.
  
  
• I have been in two major car accidents. I have also lost three good friends separately to car accidents, all due to drunk driving. I have never gotten over them.
  
  
• I love history. Specifically, I love the history of rich people. I'm not sure why, as I am not rich. And half the time I root against them anyway. But they used to live interesting lives.
  
  
• I am a purist and a traditionalist in almost everything except technology. (But sometimes, even there.) Nothing beats the original. Nothing beats the real thing.
  
  
• My first computer was an Apple //c. I used it for 11 years.
  
  
• I think modern pop music sucks.
  
  
• I am generally a skeptic, a pragmatist and a realist out of necessity and experience. But I love to feel caught up in a movement when one takes me.
  
  
• My favorite sport is NFL football. My wife calls herself a football widow.
  
  
• My first concert was Journey in 1985. I have been to around 50 more concerts since then (almost none of them Journey!).
  

That's about all that comes to mind. Now you know me a little better.